DNIT inspects Brazil-Uruguay waterway locks

DNIT technicians inspect Brazil-Uruguay waterway locks

In June, technicians from the National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT), with the support of a technical team from the United States Army Corps Engineers (USACE), conducted a technical visit to the four locks of the Autarchy, located on the Brazil-Uruguay Waterway, in Rio Grande do Sul.

The locks of Amarópolis, Ring of Don Marco and Fandango, in the Jacuí River, allow navigability along the 370km river, from its mouth in Lake Guaíba, to the city of Dona Francisca (RS). Bom Retiro do Sul, in turn, makes navigation possible on the Taquari River, connecting the Port of Estrela to the Jacuí River.

Amarópolis, Ring of Dom Marco and Bom Retiro do Sul are each 120m long, 17m wide and allow a draft of 2.5m. Fandango, the oldest, is 85m long, 15m wide and has a 2.5m draft.

These visits are part of the National Lock Recovery, Operation, and Maintenance Program (PROECLUSAS), initiated in May by the Board of Waterway Infrastructure (DAQ), to promote the management, maintenance and operation of the locks under DNIT’s responsibility.  The main purpose of these visits was to check if the facilities need recovery and / or modernization, since these locks have between 43 to 61 years of operation.

The next step will be to make revisions of existing pre-projects, with the support of USACE, in order to subsidize the contracting of the Basic and Executive Projects for the necessary interventions.

Today there are eight locks under DNIT’s responsibility. Of these, four are in Rio Grande do Sul (Fandango, Amarópolis, Dom Marco, and Bom Retiro do Sul), two in São Paulo (Três Irmãos and Jupiá), one in Pará (Tucuruí), and one in Bahia (Sobradinho).

Source: DNIT

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